Mounting means for plow blade



July 3, 1962 L. KOLOSEUS 3,041,753

MOUNTING MEANS FOR PLOW BLADE Filed April 29, 1960 J INVENTOR.

A uc/mv flag 9550.:

BY M away United States Patent 3,041,753 MOUNTING MEANS FOR PLOW BLADE Lucian Koloseus, Wels, Ober-Oesterreich, Austria (13 Wielemannstrasse, Vienna 18, Austria) Filed Apr. 29, 1960, Ser. No. 25,761 Claims priority, application Austria Apr. 30, 1959 4 Claims. (Cl. 37-144) This invention relates to heavy road working and material handling equipment such as snow plows, road graders, bulldozers and the like and particularly to the means for mounting a material handling blade to a vehicle.

In the use of such equipment of conventional construc tion it has been shown that because of uneven road surfaces, the scraping edge of a blade is subjected to considerable wear and damage resulting from repeated and violent contacts with various obstructions. This damage often extends to the blade suspension mechanism and, in extreme cases, to the chassis of the vehicle itself. Efforts directed toward reducing this damage to a minimum by means of a flexible mounting of the blade have resulted in only partial success.

This invention has as its main object the elimination of faults found in known constructions involving the flexible mounting of road working and material handling blades. To this end, the blade construction herein disclosed and illustrated has a scraping blade, preferably slanted with respect to its direction of travel, which can swing backward against a counteracting spring about an axis of rotation which is located preferably above the blade and parallel to it. The invention provides a torsion bar spring mounted coaxially with the axis of rotation of the blade and includes means for pretensioning the spring prior to using the blade. The torsion bar spring is located inside a tubular support and which rotatably mounts the blade, and the pretensioning means is connected between the spring and the blade.

Other features and the advantages of such construction will be understood from the following specification and the accompanying drawings, in which said drawings:

FIG. 1 shows a side elevation of one possible embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the mechanism of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a detail view taken generally along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a plan view in partial section of a clevis member of the invention;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged section taken generally along the line 5-5 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged section taken generally along the line 6-6 of FIG. 1 adjacent one end of the blade supporting mechanism.

Referring now to the drawings in all of which like parts are designated by like reference characters, a scraping blade 1 is pivoted upon coaxial tubular supports 6 by means of friction bearings 3 welded or otherwise suitably secured to the back of said blade. The tubular supports 6 are welded at their inner ends to a connecting member which is rotatably mounted by means of a large clevis member 16.

The blade 1 comprises a forwardly concave body portion having a horizontally disposed upper plate 21 and lateral, reinforcing end plates 22. The connecting member 15 is provided with a forwardly projecting stop 7 which makes fiatwise contact with the upper plate 21 to limit the clockwise rotation of the blade 1 as seen in FIG. 1. Additional stops 7a are provided on the tubular supports 6 adjacent their outer ends adapted to cooperate with stops 7b welded to the back of the body portion 20 of the blade 1, said stops 7a and 7b also limiting the clockwise rotation of the blade 1 as shown in FIG. 1.

To prevent rotation of the connecting member 15 and 3,041,753 Patented July 3, 1962 ice the tubular supports 6, said connecting member is provided with a groove 9 which is adapted to be aligned with a pair of grooves 13 in the upper surfaces of coaxial bearings 8 of the clevis member 16. A latch member 14 extends through the aligned grooves 9 and 13-13 and is held in position by pins 31 which project through upstanding ears 30 of said bearings, said pins engaging suitable apertures in the latch member 14. The connecting member 15 is thereby rigidly held against rotation relative to the clevis member 16.

Another groove 9 located in circumferentially spaced relation to the groove 9, provides means for securing the blade 1 in a nonscr-aping position shown in dotted lines in FIG. 1.

As therein disclosed, a pair of aligned torsion bar springs 4 are rigidly secured to the connecting member 15 at their inner ends, said springs being coaxially positioned within the tubular supports 6. The torsion bar springs are preferably rectangular in section and may comprise a single torsion bar projecting through the connecting member 15 and extending in either lateral direction therefrom if so desired. The outer ends of said torsion bars are provided with cylindrical swivels 10 pivotally mounted within the outer ends of the tubular supports 6. Swivel plates 11 are secured in any suitable manner to said swivels and are positioned contiguous the outer ends of said tubular supports.

A pivot screw 23 is pivoted at one end thereof to upstanding lugs 5 of the upper plate 21 adjacent each lateral end of the blade 1. The free end of each said pivot screw 23 is projected through an upstanding, apertured arm 24 which extends upwardly from one of the swivel plates 11. By tightening nuts 25 thread fitted upon the free ends of the pivot screws 23, the torsion bars 4 and, therefore the blade 1, may be pretensioned whereby said blade presents a predetermined amount of resilient resistance to the material being handled.

The entire blade and mounting structure as above described is rigidly mounted to a tractor or other suitable vehicle (not shown) by means of a frame 17 which comprises a Y-shaped yoke 17a pivoted to the clevis member 16 by means of a bolt 2. A long arm 17b connects one of the yoke arms to a stub shaft 12 projecting outwardly from one of the swivel plates 11, and a shorter arm 17c connects the other yoke arm to a stub shaft 12 of the other swivel plate 11. The difference in the length of the arms 17b and causes the blade 1 to be positioned obliquely relative to the direction of travel of said blade, and it will be understood that the obliquity can be reversed by interchanging said arms 17 b-17c. Also, it will be understood that the blade 1 may be mounted to scrape at right angles to the direction of travel by providing arms 17b-17c which are of the same length.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that whenever the blade 1 strikes an obstruction or otherwise encounters excessive resistance from the material being worked, said blade may pivot backwardly, or in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 1, against the tension of the torsion springs 4. This effectively absorbs heavy shock loads which might otherwise be transferred to the frame and tractor or which could result in damage and excessive wear to the blade itself. The friction bearings 3 retard the return movement of the blade sufliciently to prevent sudden shock against the stops 7, 7a and 7b. The amount of flexibility of the blade is adjustable to suit the conditions under which the blade is being used by means of the pivot screws 23. By a simple adjustment, the blade may be folded upwardly and backwardly when not inuse such as during transit from one work location to another.

It will be understood that many departures from the details of this invention may be made without, however,

departing from the spirit thereof or the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A work handling tool of the type referred to comprising a blade, a pair of coaxially aligned, tubular supports rigidly secured at their inner ends to a connecting member, a pair of torsion bar springs projecting laterally from said connecting member and positioned coaxially within said supports, said blade pivotally mounted upon said tubular supports, stop means on said support and said blade preventing rotation of said blade in one direction, means connecting said torsion bar springs to said blade whereby said springs resiliently urge said blade in said one direction.

2. A work handling tool as set forth in claim 1 wherein the recited means for connecting said torsion bar springs to said blade includes adjustable means whereby the reactive efiort upon said blade is pretensioned.

3. A work handling tool of the type set forth in claim 1 including flame means connected to said connecting 4 member, said connecting member rotatable relative to said frame means whereby said blade is foldable upwardly from an operative to an inoperative position, latch means associated with said frame means and said connecting members for optionally locking said blade in either said operative or said inoperative position.

4. A work handling blade as set forth in claim 1 wherein the recited blade is pivoted upon said tubular supports by means of friction bearings whereby when said blade is rotated against the reactive effort of said springs and subsequently released, the return movement of said blade in the direction of said stop means is effectively retarded.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

